For the good of the kingdom
by renrenren3
Summary: For the good of the kingdom, Merlin has to wear a dress. Arthur thinks it's going to be hilarious, but gets more than he bargained for.


"Why do you need me?"

"Don't be daft, Merlin, I've explained it three times already," Arthur said, leaning back in his chair and balancing his feet on the table. He stared at his manservant, who as always wasn't displaying great mental skills. "King Osmund is planning to offer me his daughter's hand in marriage, I can't let that happen."

"You could just refuse," Merlin replied.

Arthur rolled his eyes. Right, as if the idea hadn't occurred to him. He could just _refuse_. "If I tell him no, our alliance will crumble," he snapped. "However, if when he arrives he finds out that I'm already married, there isn't much that he can do about it."

Merlin crossed his arms and kept staring with insolence. More insolence than he should have allowed in a servant, really, but Arthur was several years too late in trying to fix that. "But why do you need _me_?" Merlin repeated, stressing the last word. "You could have any woman in Camelot pretending to be your wife. You could have _a woman_ pretending to be your wife, surely that would be better?"

"I can't possibly ask a lady to take part in this charade!" Arthur exclaimed. "It would be unseemly."

"Right, because it's not unseemly to ask me," Merlin snapped.

"Who cares about you? You're a servant, it'll be funny!" Seeing Merlin's outraged glare, he added, "Besides, old Osmund is as blind as a bat. We'll put you in a skirt and he'll swear you're the fairest princess he's ever seen in his life."

"But..."

"It's for the good of the kingdom!" That, at least, managed to shut Merlin up. Arthur smirked at the thought of Merlin in a shirt and petticoat. "By the way, remember to stop by Morgana's chambers before you go home. I can't have my wife prancing around wearing breeches and that ugly neckerchief."

* * *

><p>It was going to be the funniest prank ever. Not only would Arthur finally rid himself of Osmund, he'd also get to see Merlin in a dress. Arthur had been thinking about him wearing women's clothes even since he'd caught him with one of Morgana's dresses, all that time ago. It was going to be hilarious, even more than the time when Arthur had given Merlin the funny hat with a feather and told him it was Camelot's ceremonial costume. Merlin had caught on shortly after, but not after giving Arthur a good laugh.<p>

Arthur walked into the door of Morgana's chambers with those thoughts, wondering if he could persuade her to add a couple of feathers to Merlin's dress. He didn't expect to find her fitting one of her old gowns on Merlin.

"Arthur!" Merlin exclaimed, turning around in a flutter of silk and lace.

Morgana grinned and took half a dozen pins out of her mouth. "Hello, Arthur," she said. "How can I help you?"

"I just wanted to check how this is coming along," Arthur said, waving her back to her work. "I didn't expect you to be doing this yourself, you could have hired a seamstress..."

"And miss all of the fun?" Morgana replied. "Besides, this dress is for your royal wife, it must be perfect."

"Quite right," Arthur grinned, waving her back to her work. "Don't mind me."

He walked around Merlin in a wide circle as Morgana finished the hem, admiring the dress. It was silk, scarlet with gold embroidery, the Pendragon colours. Merlin was blushing so much that his face matched the fabric. "It suits you," Arthur told him.

"Very funny," mumbled Merlin, staring at the approximate region of his feet, now covered with layers of red satin.

Despite the jape, Arthur had to admit to himself that Merlin didn't look quite as ridiculous as he would have thought. God forbid, Merlin looked almost good in that thing. Morgana had worked some sartorial magic to make the skirt longer and fit Merlin's lanky figure. It was so long that it was sweeping on the floor. Merlin would have to limit himself to small, cautious steps, unless he wanted to trip and show everyone his knickers. Or maybe he wouldn't knickers. Maybe he wouldn't wear anything at all under the dress.

"Come on, let's skip the part where you try to subtly make fun of me," Merlin said. "Just say that I look ridiculous."

Arthur planted himself in front of Merlin and smirked. "No, really, you don't look half as bad as I feared. I particularly like the, er, the top half," he said, gesturing with his fingers towards Merlin's collarbone, which seemed reasonably safe and away from any thoughts of Merlin's knickers.

"The square neckline," Morgana put in. She straightened up and adjusted her gown. "That's supposed to be for showing the, you know, the cleavage," she said, with a gesture that was only too eloquent. "Only in Merlin's case there's no cleavage to speak of, and there isn't much that I can do about it."

"Too true," Arthur said. He snickered, while Merlin's blush spread up to the aforementioned neckline. No doubt Merlin was wishing that he had magic so that he could disappear into thin air.

"Maybe I can add some padding," Morgana mused.

Arthur thought about Merlin with boobs. "No, it would just feel fake," he said, dismissing the notion with one sweep of his hand. He liked the contrast between the hard lines of Merlin's body and the softness of the silk, even though he couldn't possibly say _that_.

Morgana hummed and stepped behind Merlin, fiddling with the laces. Suddenly, Merlin gasped. "Maybe I can tighten the corset," Morgana said. "Give him more of a figure."

"Morgana, I can't breathe," Merlin gasped.

The corset was certainly doing interesting things for Merlin's figure. Arthur blinked. "Yeah, sure," he told Morgana, ignoring his manservant who was an idiot who didn't know what was good for him. "Whatever you think is good."

"I'm going to die before King Osmund is here," Merlin groaned.

Arthur clasped him on the shoulder. "Cheer up, he's only going to stay for a week," he said. Privately, he was already planning to extend Osmund's stay by another week or two.


End file.
